Not exactly Bon Appetite.

I had planned to make fish for dinner w/ a side of mango, as they go together nicely. The mango is so liked by the pickier eaters in the family that they seem to comment less of the fish, which isn’t their favorite (If you don’t like something, it is okay to say, “it’s not my favorite”, it is not ok to say, “I hate this” or repeatedly say “thumbs down” after your mother has told you to stop.)

Anyway….Ken called to say that his work dinner was changed to tonight and so I decided to change dinner plans. I had wanted to make some Chinese Chicken meatballs. I had seen the recipe on the Weight Watchers sight and it sounded great.

The meatballs were in fact great. See below:
Now, before we get all excited, I need to explain why I took the picture. 1st of all I am very impressed by bloggers who are good cooks and share great recipes. I occasionally would like to do that, except for the fact I am not a good cook and don’t often use a recipe.

That said, I really took the picture because of the irony. It was such a pretty plate - THEN
A. Anna threw her plate off the highchair almost immediately. (in part because she probably wasn’t too hungry because she ate crackers while I tried to make the meatballs, the other part may be explained later)
B. Carolyn had her nose plugged before dinner got to the table. It was hard to argue that there was a smell…..

The smell related to 2 things – Matthew made the dipping sauce for the meatballs (which actually were turkey, not chicken) and it included Fish Sauce. I was going to skip it, but decided since I was at the store anyway I would follow the recipe! Fish Sauce (store bought anyway) smells YUCKY…..this is because its primary ingredient is anchovy….again YUCK. The fish sauce alone probably would not have made the house stink. But I tried to make the meal extra healthy with Chinese Veggies I bought at the store today. You should not be able to mess up frozen veggies, so I will not take the blame - but in the words of Joel “this smells like animal poop”.

Let’s establish the Joel’s favorite foods are not frozen veggies and he has been sent from the table on occasion for his inability to stop criticizing them (see the “thumbs down” comment above). That said….the veggies DID STINK – literally. I wouldn’t say “animal poop”, but I am not too far off when I say that they smelled like a barn. I love Chinese veggies and I could not choke them down…even to be a good role model. I think Matthew probably would have eaten his, if I had, because being my “good eater”, his comment was – “what a stupendous meal” (or something along those lines). Matthew often sees the need to compliment the cook, when the others aren’t being as kind. He did have many meatballs, but everyone’s veggies hit the garbage can. My DH cleaned the kitchen and took out the trash so as to rid the house of the odor!

What NOT to buy! (Unless you like to imagine that you are eating your veggies in a barn.)